


Risk and Reward

by Sidereon



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2020-10-20 10:10:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20673665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sidereon/pseuds/Sidereon
Summary: Risk, a young guardian, finds themself on a remote outpost on Sedna. But there's something odd about this Warlock...





	1. Welcome to Sedna

“Alright rookie, have you ever dealt with the Hive?” The Titan asked. He crouched as well as he could in his bulky, colorful armor, though his bright orange and purple face plating wasn’t helping much with stealth. Being an Exo, he also had the perk of his mouth lighting up a fluorescent blue whenever he spoke.

On the other hand, the rookie in question was dressed in a simple leather overcoat and beiges and whites. Aside from the red sash at their waist, they blended in quite well.

They shook her head in response to the Titan’s question. “I’ve heard of them.” They answered in a raspy voice.

As if on cue, a shrill screech rang out. A skeletal looking Thrall climbed over one of the boulders nearby.

Despite his apparent lack of eyes, the Titan whipped his head around towards the Thrall. Unholstering his gun, he dropped it into the kinderguardian’s hand. He raised a fist, electricity crackling around his arm. “Here, take this, I’ve-”

He was suddenly cut off by the sound of an impact and the Thrall crumbling before him, with his old hand cannon sticking out of the pile of bone shards. Turning to look, the younger Guardian still had their arm extended.

“-Got...your back.” He finished, lowering his hand as the sparks dissipated. “Dang, you’ve got a good arm.”

“Thanks.” They said, suddenly embarrassed. Quickly pulling their arm back to their side, they adjusted their leather overcoat. “Sorry I threw your gun.”

“No worries, and it’s yours now.” He said warmly, just as a whole swarm of Thrall started pouring over the same boulder. “Ah, looks like you’ll need it.” This time he brought both fists up, charging up a thunder-strike.

The young Guardian stayed low and darted forward. Following close behind, the Titan leaped into the air and hammered both fists down on the ground, letting out an electric shock-wave that disintegrated most of the surrounding Hive.

The rest were dealt with in turn by the young Guardian. A burst of fiery energy erupted from their outstretched hand. The nearest Thrall burst apart with a surge of Light. They darted past. Scooping up the gun, they leapt into the air and fired on the remaining Thrall below. A pneumatic hiss sounded as they hovered and drifted, signifying them as a Warlock

The first several shots went wide. As the Thrall closed in, they panicked, landing on the ground and stumbling back a few steps. The Warlock managed to shoot the next two at point blank. The third managed to get a few swipes in as the gun ran out of ammo. Taking out a knife, they finally dispatched it.

“Nice work, kid.” The Titan said, walking up to them and handing over a pack of ammo. “Have uh, have you ever fired a gun before?”

The Warlock shrugged as they took one hand off of the gun. Accepting the ammo, they noted how the one-handed grip felt more familiar, but the gun was heavy enough that it felt unwieldy. “No..? Not that I recall. And my name is Risk, by the way.”

Nodding, the Titan said, “Risk, a good name. I’m Ennix-15.” He gave a casual salute before continuing. “And you’ll get the hang of weapons with time. With slower enemies just line up the sights and shoot when you’re ready. And if you don’t mind my asking, how did you get here?”

Risk was silent for a moment as they examined the hand cannon. The red, black, and white designs were striking against their leather gloves. “Heard there was an outpost here. I need supplies, need to learn how to use my light.” With a deft flick of the wrist, they exposed the chamber and angled the gun back, letting the spent magazine fall into their free hand. They wore a strange mix of gloves and mittens, with the last three fingers on each hand in the same pocket, but they deftly moved the new mag around the spent one and slipped it in. With another flick of the wrist, they closed the chamber and finished reloading.

“Well, Hyperion outpost is just West of us.” He explained, pointing a gauntleted hand in the direction. “The Tower would be your best bet for supplies and training, but we can start you off here. Hyperion’s main building - the Cabin - has some spare gear."

Their response died in their throat as their radar showed more approaching enemies. Readying their new gun, Risk ducked behind the nearest boulder, looking to Ennix.

“We don’t have to fight all of them.” He said, lowering his voice. “We just have to get past them to get you to the outpost.”

Risk tilted their head at him. “I’ve read about the Hive. They’re really bad news. If we end them now, they won’t be threats later.”

“Well, can’t argue with that.” Ennix conceded. Extending a hand, another gun transmatted into his open palm. “Let’s go, Guardian.”

That last word was weighted with an unexpected amount of respect and pride. Caught off guard, Risk stayed there until the sound of an arc grenade pulled them back into the moment. Rising from their crouch, they followed after the Titan.

~~~

Over the next half hour or so, the two of them made quick progress across the rocky and Hive-infested terrain. It was not entirely without incident, though. One encounter in particular involved a Wizard, and Risk had to be revived. But as they kept moving, the Hive growths around them became less and less common, until the Guardians crested a final outcropping of boulders. Risk stopped. Their expression was still fairly neutral, but Ennix could tell they were captivated.

“Welcome to Sedna.” He said. “It’s not much, but what we do have is pretty good.”

The ground before them sloped down into a shallow valley, boulders and rocks giving way to short trees that came closer and closer together to form a sparse forest. At the edge of the tree line was Hyperion Outpost, a fenced compound punctuated by a large metal building. The copper and bronze metal of it reflected the dim light of the setting sun in a way that lived up to the name of this place - dazzling reds and oranges reflecting into the night. The sky above them went from a dark and translucent blue to a deep black, revealing more and more stars as true night fell over the land. Stars closer to the horizon were already visible, piercing through the lingering twilight. They almost seemed to beckon to the young Warlock.

“Come on,” Ennix said, gesturing for Risk to follow. “Let’s see if I’ve got time to show you around before the night shift.”

Ennix started walking down the slope, but Risk still stood there.

Since they had first rezzed, Risk had had reservations about coming here, and plenty of doubt and anxiety about their new purpose. But as they watched the sky fill up with stars above a place where people had managed to survive for so long against all odds, they couldn’t help but feel a spark of hope. A feeling that maybe they were finally beginning to fulfill their destiny.

They followed Ennix down the slope, and into their new life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of a prologue of sorts but I'm excited to finally get my first fic started!


	2. Contemplation in the Cabin

As the two of them got closer to the compound, Ennix held out a hand. A moment later, in a puff of light, a Ghost appeared.

“Deneb, could you let McClaude know we’re coming with an extra guardian?” Ennix asked.

“Of course,” Deneb said. He sounded very posh. Turning to Risk, his shell dipped a little in an approximation of a bow. “And a pleasure to make your acquaintance, young Risk.”

“Uh, hi.” Risk said. Unsure of what to do, they pulled out their own ghost as well. “This is Slag.”

“Hi!” The chipper ghost said, her round shell bouncing in Risk’s palm.

“Er, yes, hello.” Deneb greeted. “Apologies, I’ll be but a moment.” Small beeps and chirps sounded from him as he contacted the guards at the front gate. “Watchmaster McClaude, Ennix and I wish to inform you that we’re arriving with a new guardian. We encountered them…?” The ghost paused, looking to Risk for confirmation.

Risk shrugged. “Them, or she, I’m not picky about pronouns.”

Deneb made a bobbing motion to simulate a nod and continued. “-We encountered them in The Craigs, and will be arriving shortly.”

“Didn’t think there was anyone out there _to_ resurrect,” A voice replied over the comms. “‘Cept for you guys on patrols, I guess. Come on in, I’ll let Hayes know we’ve got a new guest. It’s a pleasure to have you, guardian.”

“Thank you!” Slag said, her shell spinning with excitement. “We’re looking forward to working with you, too!”

McClaude chuckled. “I’ll bet. See you soon.” With that, the connection cut out, and Deneb turned back to Slag.

“Now, as I said, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He resumed. “And congratulations on finding your Guardian.”

“Thank you. It took a _really_ long time.” She said, voice a little somber. Then, back in her usual tone, “BUT, it was TOTALLY worth it. Risk is the BEST and I wouldn’t want ANYONE else as my guardian.”

Deneb chuckled. “Yes, very good. Well, you keep them safe, Slag. We’ll have to chat again some other time.” With that, Ennix dismissed him as he and Risk walked up to the gate.

On either side of the gate sat a guard on a watchtower, both armed with rifles. The one on the left stood up and slung their weapon onto their back before sliding down one of the struts, down fifteen feet until they hit the ground. As the gate opened inward, they walked towards the two guardians.

“Ennix, good to see you back.” The human said, playfully punching him in the shoulder. “And you must be the fresh cut.” They said, turning to Risk, an arm extended for a handshake.

“Nice to meet you…” Risk said, hesitantly extending their own hand but unsure what to do with it. Eventually they settled on a thumbs up.

The guard gave a conceding nod and returned the thumbs up. “Well, I’m Ness McClaude, at your service. If you need the Quartermaster, Hayes is at her post, as usual.” They said, pointing towards the bronze and copper building, which Risk assumed was the Cabin.

“Has curfew begun? I wanted to show Risk around, but I don’t want to keep anyone up.” Ennix asked.

“You made it back in the nick of time,” McClaude told him. “But you lot can go basically anywhere. I’m sure as long as you’re not showing her shoulder charges or nothin’ you’ll be fine.”

“Better I set an example, I think.” Ennix said. “Have a good shift, McClaude. Stay sharp.”

“Aye, you too.” They said, climbing back up the watchtower.

As the two of them made their way towards the Cabin, Risk kept turning their head to look at all the different buildings and structures and people they passed. There was still a bundle of nerves sitting in their chest, but this was the most civilization they had seen since first rez. In return, the inhabitants of the outpost seemed to catch on that there was a new face. Humans and Awoken called out greetings. Risk waved back in response, humbled by the attention but eager to prove themself to these people.

Ennix’s robotic features shifted into a smile. Watching Risk look in awe at the modest settlement reminded him of his own days as a kinderguardian. He couldn’t wait to take her to the City.

As they neared the Cabin, a figure approached them directly - An Awoken woman with silvery skin and purple hair cut close to her head. She wore a long purple hood and cloak, her armor much sleeker than Ennix’s bulky setup. Risk immediately recognized her as another guardian, the feeling of her Light was unmistakable.

“Ennix!” She said, holding both her arms out. “You didn’t tell me you found a kinderguardian. What’s good, kid? My name’s Siran, resident Hunter.”

“I’m Risk,” They said, giving a small wave. “I’m a Warlock, Ennix has been showing me the ropes.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” She said. “Well hey, I’m heading out on patrol. If you have a hard time sleeping, feel free to join me. Otherwise, I’ll see you two later.” She did some finger-guns as she started walking again, pausing the gesture to exchange a fistbump with Ennix as she passed.

As the two of them continued toward the Cabin, a thought struck Risk.

“Is there another Warlock here?” They asked.

“No, not that I’ve seen.” He answered. “If you’re looking for someone to teach you about your class, I know Siran can give a few pointers - she’s pretty close with a Warlock herself. But I wouldn’t worry too much about your abilities. Everyone wields their Light a little differently.”

“Okay, good to know.” Risk said, nervously adjusting their gloves.

Stepping into the metallic building - no longer shining now that the sun was down - Ennix introduced Risk to Quartermaster Hayes. She was a strong and portly woman, well suited for hard labor and survival in a desolate place like Sedna. Her workstation was a half-circle of monitors nestled between rows of crates and provisions.

“Trouble seems to have a knack for finding guardians,” She said, “But Hyperion Outpost could always use another set of hands. Here, I managed to pull this from our inventory when Ennix said you were comin’.” Walking over to one of the nearby crates, she pulled out a sniper rifle and presented it to Risk. “Give it a few more days, let me see what you’re made of, I might be able to wrangle some new robes for ya. How’s that sound?”

Risk gingerly accepted the weapon, looking at it with shining eyes. Looking back up, they said, “I won’t let you down, Quartermaster.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” She said. “And the rest of the Cabin is yours - there are some cots here if you need to sleep, food rations down the hall, you need anything else you give me a holler.”

“Will do,” Ennix said. “Thank you, Hayes.”

Transmatting the rifle away, Risk followed the Titan down one of the halls.

“I’m going to try and sleep.” Ennix said to them. “Feel free to explore the Cabin, or join Siran on patrol if you’re not tired yet. I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Ok, and thank you...for helping me out.”

He nodded, but paused for a moment, stopping in the hallway. Then, in a soft voice he said, “I remember my time as a new guardian. I was mostly on my own, just taking orders and figuring things out by myself. It was a long road, and If I see a chance to make your first few days easier, I’ll gladly take it.”

_First few days, huh?_ Risk thought. Ennix was a couple months late for that, but they appreciated the sentiment. They nodded back, and let Ennix retire for the night.

Continuing down the hallways, they looked for a spare room. Turning their head, they found themself face-to-face with a human -- dark undercut hair and incredibly bright blue eyes. It took Risk a moment to realize that they were looking at their own reflection. Feeling slightly rattled, they paced down the hallway to find an open storage room.

Once Slag confirmed that there was no one nearby, they stepped into the room and closed the door behind them. The boxes and crates stacked up against the walls of the room were mostly filled with mechanical stuff -- tools, gunsmith materials, and spare parts. Each crate was carefully labeled with its contents. The faint smell of metal and grease briefly caught Risk’s attention, pulling at recent memories, but they were slightly pre-occupied at the moment.

“Hey Slag?” Risk called out. The round ghost appeared in a little burst of light and sparkles. “Could you check the H.L.P. real quick? My eyes looked really blue in that reflection. Like, almost glowing blue.”

Slag started drifting over to the device Risk wore on their upper arm, but paused as they explained. “Oh, did I never mention that?” She sounded sheepish, flicking on her scanner anyways to examine it. “Your eyes kind of...always look like that.”

Risk let a sound of worry rise from their throat.

“Oh, pft- come on, it’s FINE.” Slag insisted, her shell spinning and shifting around as she carried out her inspection. “Most people will probably just assume it’s a trick of the lighting, or that you have some Awoken ancestry.” With a few final beeps and clicks, her scanner switched off. “And it’s fine too, diagnostics look good, everything’s calibrated, and it’s still got a week’s worth of battery left.”

“Cool, thanks.” Risk said, before calmly leaning their side against the door, falling into a crouch, and burying their head into their arms, letting out a muffled and high-pitched sound.

Slag seemed a little taken aback, but puttered around and gently bumped into their shoulder before saying, “Hey, we did it! Risk, that went SO well. We finally made it here, and you’re making friends!”

“I’m actually a guardian.” Risk said in disbelief, voice still muffled.

Slag made a little huffy sound. “Well of COURSE you are, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to resurrect you the first time, ya dummy.”

“I know it’s just,” They lifted their head up. “It’s nice to have that reaffirmed, you know?” Now that they were alone, Risk’s voice sounded less strained, but still raspy.

Risk’s gaze fell to their hands as they gathered their thoughts. Slag was about to give a response, but thought better of it, wandering deeper into the room to give her guardian some space. Whenever the ghost stumbled across something interesting, the light of her scanners filled the room with bright light and stark shadows, making geometrical shapes on the walls as it shone through the rows of boxes. After several minutes of looking around and exhausting her curiosity, she wandered back to her guardian.

“Um...you okay?” Slag asked.

They snapped their head up, pulled out of their reverie. “Yeah! Yeah, just...keeping all this up was more exhausting than I thought. And there’s a lot to worry about. I’m honestly amazed we got this far. There was a lot that could’ve gone wrong. A lot that could still go wrong.”

“Ooooh, I shouldn’t have told you all that stuff right after I found you.” Slag said, wriggling her shell in frustration. “Although it DOES make sense that you’re worried, and that SUCKS, but-”

“Hey-” Risk cut her off and reached out a hand. Slag drifted over and hovered above their palm as they continued. “I’m glad you gave me some heads-up, or else I would have learned it the hard way. And honestly? Part of me feels really good about this, like we were supposed to come here. I guess that’s another reason I’m scared -- I don’t want to ruin this.”

Slag nudged against Risk’s fingers. “Hey, remember what I said to Deneb? I meant EVERY word of it. You’re amazing and smart and I KNOW you’ll figure something out. I mean, it’s like you said, we made it THIS far. I say we should celebrate! How about we find out if this place has any dessert options?”

“Maybe later.” Risk mused. They were starting to get restless, and couldn’t see themself waiting around long enough to find and eat sweets. “I was actually thinking of joining that Hunter on patrol, maybe get my mind off of things.”

“Oh! Good idea!” Slag said. “She seems really nice, and I LOVE her outfit.”

Risk made a gentle motion with their hand, dismissing their ghost. _So, a week’s worth of battery left..._ It seemed like things were going to get pretty exciting in a couple different ways by then if they couldn’t figure some things out, couldn’t find the right resources. But they tried to push those fears aside as they stood up and got ready to leave. For now, they just wanted to focus on being a guardian. And right now, this guardian felt like beating up some more Hive.

~~~

About five minutes later, Risk was back out in The Craigs, following the sounds of a conflict. Scrambling and leaping over rocks, they quickly found the Hunter locked in battle with a Hive knight. Her monochrome armor was a blur, with splashes of metallic purple reflecting the starlight as she dodged and flipped around. With deadly precision, Siran unsheathed a knife and lodged it into the Knight’s back, freezing in her pose at it crumbled into bone and armor in front of her.

With a flourish, She re-sheathed the knife and strolled over to Risk, brushing loose chitin off of her shoulders.

“Hey! Glad you could join.”

“Do you still need help?” Risk said, eyeing what remained of the Hive after Siran’s handiwork.

“‘Need’ is always a strong word, but an extra fireteam member tends to make things easier. In fact, since you’re out here, I want to show you something.” She waved them over to one of the larger rock formations.

During the time the two of them spent walking, Risk kept glancing around, wondering what they were supposed to be looking for. The hunter led them away from the area Risk had been through earlier with Ennix, but the terrain still seemed familiar -- piles of boulders and smaller rock formations, with the occasional Hive growths creeping over the stone. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Siran suddenly stopped.

“You see that?” She asked, pointing up at the face of the larger rock formation in front of her. “Put it there myself.”

They squinted through the dim lighting, following Siran’s hand until their eyes finally landed on a white symbol - three semi-circles radiating out from a single dot, painted on in thick brushstrokes.

“It’s a Lost Sector.” Siran explained, her eyes narrowing with excitement. “I didn’t go through the whole place, but I’ve gone deep enough to scout it out and lots of Hive have holed up in there. I’m willing to bet they’ve got a cache of loot. It’ll mostly be stuff your ghost can make into more gear and weapons. So what do you say, want to go spelunking?”

“Let’s do it.” Risk said, taking out their hand cannon.

Siran’s pale, glowing eyes darted over to the gun. “Oh, is that Better Devils? Sorry, I’m something of a hand cannon snob, it’s uh,” She pulled out her own gun with a flourish and twirled it around before stopping it short, pointed at the sky. “-kind of a Hunter thing.”

Risk shrugged. “I don’t know, Ennix gave it to me.”

“Aw, that was nice of him.” She said, holstering her gun. “Wait, do you have anything else?”

“Hayes gave me a sniper when I got to the Cabin, but that’s about it.”

“Mm. That won’t do. One sec-” She flicked her wrist and summoned her ghost, who projected a holographic screen in front of her. “-Let’s see, you’ll want something that can do a lot of damage for you when your light’s spent...ah, here we go.” Dismissing the screen and her ghost, a huge, 6-barreled gun appeared in her arms. “Take this grenade launcher, see how you like it.”

“Oh- okay, thank you.” Risk said awkwardly, taking the heavy weapon. Everyone kept giving them things and they weren’t sure how to react. As Slag transmatted it away for storage, they wondered if they would have gotten so much gear at this point if they had gone to the Tower first. 

“Now, you’ll also want that because chances are, there’s a really big Hive guarding that loot chest.” Siran explained, walking towards a crevice in the rocks that Risk hadn’t noticed until now. “If things get a little dicey for you, just let me know. Any other questions?”

“Just one.” Risk said, following Siran into the cave. “What the heck is ‘spelunking’?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick note I wanted to make - Risk does indeed use both she/her and they/them pronouns, but I got some feedback from the last chapter that the writing was a little hard to follow from switching back and forth. Being non-binary myself, I want to get this right while still making the narrative easy to follow, so bear with me as I figure this out


	3. Spelunking

In the past few weeks, Risk had read a lot about the Hive - about the Sword Logic and why they practiced it, about how Oryx and his sisters had destroyed the worlds they conquered, and how they transformed terrain to suit their preferences. It all left a sour taste in their mouth, and left them quite eager to fight back.

But in all their research, nothing could have prepared Risk for how _gross_ it was.

They fought down a sound of revulsion as they sidestepped a wet mass that moved like it was breathing. The growths on the surface had been bad enough, but being down here actually made Risk start to miss the scrap yard they had woken up in. And the smell, dear Traveler-

“Yeah, sorry, I probably should’ve warned you about all this.” Siran said, looking back to Risk and gesturing to the surroundings. She had put on a helmet, and Risk was slightly jealous she had something to block out the smell. “I take it Titan might not be your cup of tea, the Hive presence there is real bad.”

“I think I’d still go there just to beat them up for ruining the place,” Risk said, fighting the urge to pull their hood over their face to block out the scent somewhat. “But this is all far too organic for my tastes. Give me a heap of scrapped tech and the smell of grease any day.”

“Ah, you’d probably enjoy a Fallen Lost Sector then.” Siran said, ducking underneath what looked like a tangle of vines. “Although I wouldn’t recommend fighting them. The Fallen have been through a lot at this point so I would just go in there a ways and enjoy the scenery. They actually have an eye for interior decorating, unlike some people.” She pointedly looked at a collection of round globules on the ground as she said that last part.

The Fallen were actually Risk’s main focus of study, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Siran’s more merciful approach towards them, but they figured a passing mention wasn’t the best time to spout their encyclopedic knowledge. Instead, they brought up Better Devils and pointed it back at one of the globules, firing a round to see what would happen.

The bullet hit dead-on, but bounced off. There was no effect on the globule, save for what looked like veins across the surface growing darker and more prominent. They looked to Siran, feeling a mixture of disappointment and horror.

Attention drawn by the sound, Siran turned back, and though Risk’s expression was hard to read, she could easily infer what had happened. She could only shrug. “The Hive are nasty and prepared, what can I say?”

Risk tried to think of a way to change the subject to something slightly more pleasant, but Siran cut off their thoughts by holding a hand up, signaling to stop. Risk dropped into a crouch, inching forward until they were right behind Siran.

“We’re close to the first room.” She whispered. “Lots of Thrall, some Acolytes, and a Knight. How’s your whistling?”

Confused, it took Risk a moment to gather their thoughts and answer the question. “I can’t whistle, why?” They found it difficult to keep their voice so low but still intelligible.

“Bummer. When we get a little closer, I’ll do a loud whistle and attract the Thrall. They’re gonna come fast, so get ready to chuck a grenade. Sound like a plan?”

Risk gave a thumbs up in response, the excitement building in their chest along with their Light. This was exactly what they needed to work out some nerves.

The two of them crept forward, both eerily silent as they advanced towards the next bend in the tunnel. Putting another hand up, Siran looked to Risk again and held up three fingers. Then two. One-

Bringing two fingers to her mouth, Siran let out an ear-splitting note. It almost made Risk lose focus. But there was a shriek in response. A sound Risk was beginning to know well. Light flooded down their arm and into their hand. With deadly precision, the grenade flew right into the first Thrall that came into sight.

An explosion of flames rocked the narrow tunnel. Siran let out a whoop of excitement as she whipped out her hand cannon and started firing from the hip, picking off the stragglers who were still rushing forward.

Once they had cleared that wave, Siran darted around the corner. Risk went a little slower, peeking their head out.

The tunnel widened into a decent sized chamber, with a wide stalagmite rising from the floor and a few loose boulders scattered around. Instinct told Risk to stay behind cover and to only lean out to shoot, but was rather annoyed to see that the Acolytes had the same idea. So while Siran was occupied with the Knight, they drew both daggers from beneath their coat and went to town.

A few minutes and a pile of bone shards later, Risk sharply twisted and yanked their knife to bring down the last Hive in that room. Taking a few steps back, they looked around to try and find their other dagger, which they had dropped at some point during the conflict.

“Dang, you’re pretty good with these.” Siran said, walking over to the dagger lying on the floor. With a smooth motion, she kicked it up into the air and caught it by the blade before stepping back over to Risk. “Did you practice, or was this something you were rezzed with?”

Risk took it back and quickly re-sheathed the daggers. “You sound surprised.” They didn’t have an accusatory tone, but now that there was no more imminent threat, their anxieties from earlier that night started to bubble back to the surface.

The Hunter shrugged as she started towards the opposite end of the room and further into the caves. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Warlock fight with knives before. It’s unconventional, for sure, but that doesn’t make it bad or wrong. If anything, it makes things more fun. Kinda makes me wish the Traveler would spice things up a little more often.”

Taking a deep breath, Risk took their hand cannon back out and followed after Siran. “I ah, didn’t have to practice with them, to answer your question.” They said. “But it’s strange, if I don’t think during a fight I’ll either drop them or I won’t take them out at all. It’s like I have to try and actively reach for that muscle memory. But it’s familiar, so…” They trailed off with a shrug.

Siran was silent for a few moments as the two of them continued their descent. “I understand.” She finally said. “I’m glad you have a fond sense of your past. There’s nothing wrong with having a few keepsakes.”

Risk noted the emotion behind those words, but decided not to pry.

They came across the next room of Hive, but the two guardians cleared it just as quickly as the first. The tunnel started to get taller and wider as they neared the final section of the cave. As the light faded, there was also a sound that grew louder, that set Risk’s teeth on edge -- a thrumming they felt more than heard, grinding at their subconscious.

“What is that!?” They finally hissed, crouching down near the wall of the cave. Just a few feet ahead, the tunnel narrowed suddenly before expanding again into a huge cavern.

“A Shrieker.” Siran explained, stooping down next to them. “Big menacing thing floating near the ceiling, you can’t miss it. Here’s what I’m thinking -- I’ll go in and set it off. Once it starts shooting, you aim at the round part in the center. Two or three hits from your sniper or grenade launcher should do it. At that point we’ll probably get the attention of the big guy-”

“You mean the Shrieker isn’t the big guy?”

“-Probably not, no. But listen, just leave the big guy to me. If you start to feel overwhelmed just fall back, find some cover, and pick off the smaller Hive if you can. There’ll be a lot in there, and reducing the number of things shooting at you and your allies has been a tried-and-true strategy. Sound good?”

Risk hesitated. “I feel bad letting you do all the hard stuff.”

“Well hey, if you’re feeling feisty, by all means come join the fray.” She said, rising from her crouch and readying her gun. “I’ll watch your back in there.”

They nodded and pulled out their sniper rifle, loading it up and peering around the corner.

It was very dark in there, but before Risk’s eyes could adjust, Siran sprinted in and started firing rounds into the shadows.

“Wake up, everyone!” She shouted. “You’ve got company!”

As soon as the first round was fired, an eerie purple glow ignited about ten feet in the air, to the left of Risk. It turned out that ‘big menacing thing near the ceiling’ was a pretty accurate descriptor as two geometrical, bony halves separated to reveal a strange orb. It started spitting globules of light at Siran, who was now running around the room in an attempt to evade the attack.

Risk managed to prop the rifle up on their knee. Lining up the sights, they aimed for the brightest spot at the center and fired.

CRACK

A pulse of light emanated from the thing, but it kept firing. They readied the next round, the spent shell casing clattering onto the stone floor as they aimed again. A few more bursts of light came from the Shrieker as Siran shot at it, trying to keep its attention.

CRACK

This time, the Shrieker paused for a moment before it started firing on Risk. Rushing to load the next shot, they barely had time to aim and fire before a hail of projectiles sent everything to black.

Moments later, Risk felt a surge of Light and found themself back on their feet as they were brought back to life. They stumbled back a few steps as they got their bearings. Looking up, the Shrieker was now gone, along with its awful noise. That allowed new sounds to filter into Risk’s mind, like hive weapons being fired, a deep and guttural roar, and Siran shouting.

“OGRE!” She yelled, scrambling into Risk’s field of vision. “We’ve got an Ogre! This is NOT ideal!!”

Risk switched to their grenade launcher just in time to see a huge, shambling, bulbous mass emerge from the depths of the cave. What little ambient light there was glistened off of its moist skin as it brought it’s two massive arms down to smash the ground. This thing looked like the physical manifestation of brute, violent strength. Rearing back it’s pale round head, the beast let out another bellow before leveling at the Warlock and shooting a huge beam of energy out of its forehead.

It burned. Not like the comfortable, contrasting warmth of their Solar Light, but like a piece of ice had been stabbed into their chest. Even as Siran pulled them behind a boulder, they felt sick and nauseous, struggling to regain their focus.

“Catch your breath,” Siran said, “I’ll pin it down.”

Slag had already gotten to work healing Risk. Looking around the rock as best they could while still keeping cover, they watched as the Hunter sprinted and jumped into the air, Light swelling around her and collecting into her hands to form a bow. Firing a shot at the feet of the Ogre, an orb of purple energy erupted and reached out a snaking tendril towards the Hive monstrosity. The Ogre tried to take another step forward but jolted back, the tether keeping it firmly in place.

Seeing their chance, Risk brought up the grenade launcher and started firing. Explosion after explosion hit the Ogre, but even as it started to shoot it’s awful ray of energy again, Risk didn’t stop until they were out of ammo. Back pressed against the cold rock, they struggled not to black out as Slag rushed to heal their injuries again, after having just recovered from the last eye-beam attack.

As Siran kept firing spectral arrows, Risk somehow became increasingly aware of the other Hive in the room. Slinking to the other side of the boulder but staying behind cover, they took out their hand cannon and started picking off Acolytes. Despite the persistent darkness, Risk found it surprisingly easy to land their shots.

“How you doin’, Risk?” Siran called out, firing her bow one last time before the surge of Light faded.

“I’m alright.” Risk answered. They had to yell to be heard over the commotion. “I’ve only died once so far, so I’d say this is going pretty well.”

Siran laughed at that - a clear, lovely sound, like ringing bells. “That’s the spirit!” She said, running around the boulder and passing Risk. “Also, the Ogre broke free from the tether.”

“Already?” Risk hurried to load a fresh set of rounds into their hand cannon before booking it after Siran, feeling the heavy footsteps behind them.

“I’ve worn him down, don’t worry, he’s almost dead!” Siran called over her shoulder, already out of sight.

“Then why are you running!?” Without waiting for an answer, Risk turned around and brought up their hand cannon. As the ogre rounded the corner, Risk didn’t see any eyes or similarly defined weak spots, but they aimed for the part of its head where they had seen the energy beam come out of, hoping it would be enough to at least stagger the thing.

The ogre’s stance was steady as ever, but it reared its head back as Risk fired. Before they could take the chance to dart away, a small explosion went off. The Ogre stopped short as flames rose up behind it and licked around its shoulders, causing steam to rise off of its skin. It took a shaky step forward, but no longer had the strength to stay standing. It let out one last bellow of pain before slowly falling to the ground, finally dead. Risk could feel the vibrations of it’s impact through their feet, ducking their head slightly at the sound of falling pebbles and loose rock as its death rocked the cavern.

Siran stood about ten feet behind it, with a rocket launcher on her hip. “I was starting to get a little banged up.” She said as she transmatted the weapon away, trading it for her usual black-and-white hand cannon. “I needed a second to catch my breath. But you handled that really well! I was kind of expecting you to follow me, but you stood your ground like a champ!”

“Oh. Follow you. Right.” Risk said. They suddenly realized how much they were shaking.

The hunter started walking towards the very back of the cavern, her ghost shining a light to lead the way. “Well hey,” She said, “You took down your first Ogre! What’d you think?”

Risk followed after Siran. “That,” They said, breathing heavily. “was awesome. The way you summoned that bow? That was so cool!”

“You weren’t too shabby yourself.” Siran replied with a smirk, walking up to a chest encrusted with a thin covering of Hive growth. “I haven’t seen many kinderguardians with the guts to face a Hive Ogre like that. Well, face one down and live, that is.” As Siran talked, she took out her knife and carved some of the Hive growth off, finding the groove of the lid and sliding the blade through the crack.

Risk’s response died in their throat as the chest opened, revealing a few raw materials and more notably a pile of glimmer.

“Take your pick, kid.” Siran told them, sheathing her knife. When Risk looked back up at her in surprise, she continued. “You just took down your first Ogre! Even the smaller ones are unpleasant to deal with. You’ve earned it.”

_So much glimmer…_ Risk thought, looking down into the chest. Reaching a hand out, they felt the little cubes of programmable matter through their gloves. There was so much they could do with it, and yet…

“We should at least split it.” Risk said, now moving their hand to draw a line through the glimmer and only scooping half of it towards themself. “After all, you did, in fact, end up doing most of the work.”

“Eh, that’s fair.” Siran said.

As her ghost scanned the cache to transmat it away, its triangular shell twitched and spun for a moment before turning to Siran and saying, “Actually, I can’t seem to store any more of it.”

“Oh.” Siran’s pale glowing eyes blinked in surprise. “Guess I’ve been here longer than I thought.” Reaching down into the chest, she pushed the rest towards Risk with a smile. “Guess you get all of it, then. Besides, you’ve probably guessed at this point that taking down the Hive is enough of a reward on its own.”

“That’s very true.” Risk said, coughing slightly as Slag transmatted the rest away. They seemed to be having trouble catching their breath. “Do you think there are other caves like this on Sedna?”

“Probably one or two more,” Siran mused as the two started walking back out the way they came. “Although these places tend to get re-staffed, so it’d be a good idea to check back here often to clear it out again.”

Risk very much liked that idea - not the fact that Hive would keep filling this space, but that they at least wouldn’t run out of things to do. Maybe keeping this place free of the Hive would be something they could focus on.

The climb back out was still tainted by the sight and smell of the Hive growths, but it seemed to go by much faster with the thrill of the fight still fresh in the guardians’ minds. Plus, Risk felt much more comfortable in a crouch and climbing around rocks. Being 6 feet tall and rather lanky, they often felt a little unsteady on their feet while walking around with a straight back and ‘proper’ posture.

It wasn’t until they were almost out of the cave when Risk suddenly realized why they were having such a hard time breathing, why some of their injuries still ached despite the fact that Slag had healed them. As they emerged from the rockface, the night air had cooled considerably. The air was also much drier than the humid cave had been, which didn’t help Risk’s situation.

Siran took a moment to appreciate the view before turning to the Warlock. “So, you up for some patrols, or...are you okay? You still seem like you're breathing kind of hard.”

"I'm fine!" Risk said quickly. “I just...might go back to my ship. To get some rest.”

“Yeah no worries.” Siran sounded a little concerned. She pointed some finger-guns at Risk. “Hey, you rest well, Warlock. I’ll see you around, - keep those blades of yours sharp.”

“I- I will, thank you.” Risk waved as the Hunter gave a final parting smile before walking off into the night.

They turned and walked in the other direction, trying to keep their steps slow and even until Risk was absolutely sure that Siran was gone.

Stopping to lean on a rock for support, Risk took one shaking hand and pulled their hood over to the side, covering their mouth. The details of their face blurred and fuzzed as the cloth passed through the Hard Light Projection. The other hand reached under their overcoat to press a small switch at their side. Narrow tubes sewn to the inside of Risk’s hood let out a small puff of gas.

Taking a deep breath, Risk’s body flushed with cold as their breathing eased and their mind cleared.

Slag practically snapped into existence, urgently scanning her guardian and fretting. “Oh, I am SO sorry, I should have been keeping a better eye on that! That was WAY too close.”

Risk laughed weakly - a chittering sound that seemed strange coming from human features. “Guess I got a little distracted. Had so much fun down there, I forgot to keep tabs on it, too.”

“That...WAS pretty fun.” Slag admitted, still too worried about Risk to gush in her usual fashion. After another few scans, she reported, “The Hard Light Projector is still going strong, by the way, so...yay, one less thing to worry about.”

Nodding in acknowledgement, Risk pulled their hood aside again to take another breath of Ether. They knew they needed to be careful with their limited supply, but it looked like if they wanted to keep up with the physical demands of being a guardian, they would need to increase their intake.

Their mind drifted to the glimmer they had gotten from that chest…

“Let’s head back to the ship.” Risk said, pushing away from the rock. “There’s something I want to try…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I thought I said I would upload on Tuesdays instead of Mondays, so that's my bad. But better late than never, amiright? Plus, the extra time helped me figure out how I wanted to end this chapter


	4. Clouds on the Horizon

That night as Risk went back to their ship to run some experiments, Ennix was back in the Cabin, sleeping restlessly on a cot. He had fallen asleep quite easily, but that had been the least of his concerns. It was the dreams that worried him. He had researched a myriad of ways to lucid dream, had even joined his friend Balthazar in meditating several times. It turns out that realizing when you’re dreaming is easy. The hard part is waking up.

The jagged outline of a mountain range came into view. A setting sun. Between a gap in the mountains was the tower - the Crypt. Almost immediately, he realized what this was, what would happen, but he couldn’t tear himself away. He started forward, inexplicably drawn towards the structure. As he walked, figures appeared from his periphery - figures he didn’t recognize and hoped he would never remember as he started to strike them down, one after the other.

Fortunately, the dream didn’t last long. Before he could even pick up a dropped weapon he was killed, stabbed in the back by a foe he must have missed.

With a jolt, he woke up in the Cabin, his breath coming in short and rapid bursts. It didn’t take him terribly long to calm down, to remind himself that he was a robot and technically didn’t even need to breathe, but as he started to suck in long and slow breaths, the panicked ache in his chest subsided. On particularly bad nights, he would’ve gotten far enough that he would’ve started to recognize the faces in that dream. Those were the bad nights. And while this was not one of them, Ennix was still hesitant to try and sleep again.

He sat up and summoned Deneb in his hand. “Patch me through to Siran.” After a few moments and a beep of confirmation from his Ghost, Ennix said, “Are you still on patrol? I was thinking of joining you.”

“Sure am.” Came the reply. “You just missed it though, Risk and I cleared out that Lost Sector I was telling you about. Kid’s got some skills. They went back to orbit though, said she needed some rest. Get out here and I’ll save some Hive for you, maybe we can check in with Risk again when they get back.”

The next few hours were uneventful, or at least, as uneventful as things can get for guardians in the field. Ennix and Siran made the rounds through Hayes’ automated patrol beacons, and finished up any leftover bounties from the day before. The two made friendly conversation as the sun started to rise. Night and day weren’t drastically different this far from the sun, but Ennix did notice the air getting slightly warmer.

He paused as Siran stopped to sit on a nearby boulder, appreciating the view of the forest valley below her. Ennix walked up and leaned a shoulder against the rock, taking in his surroundings and wishing his boyfriend Deuces was there.

After a moment of companionable silence, he spoke up. “You said ‘when’ Risk gets back, not ‘if’. What has you so confident?”

Siran shrugged, not looking away from the scenery. “I figured they probably got good reason to be here. I know we do. I usually don’t jump to conclusions, but hey - once is an anomaly, twice is a coincidence-”

“Three times is a pattern, right.” Ennix finished the saying, frowning. He didn’t like the thought that someone as young and bright-eyed as Risk already had reasons to prefer this place to literally anywhere else in the solar system.

“Besides,” Siran said, grunting as she rose to her feet. “Wouldn’t make sense for them to come here in the first place if she was just gonna leave after a few hours. But I mean, who knows, maybe I scared her off. I’d like to think I didn’t make _that_ bad of an impression, but I’ve been wrong before.”

Ennix snorted. He knew better than most about how charming Hunters could be, and Siran was certainly no exception. As the two of them started walking back towards the Cabin, he tried to think of a sufficiently uplifting retort. Before he could give a response, a blue arrow showed up on his radar.

“Speak of the devil,” He said, turning around as Risk approached. Nudging Siran, he continued. “Looks like your instincts are still good. And while they’re here, maybe you could give her a few pointers on being a Warlock, stuff you picked up from Zircon.”

“Oh, that’s not a bad idea,” Siran said appraisingly. “Tell you what, you keep patrolling with Risk or whatever while I see about getting a message out, see if there’s anything important I need to cover.”

As Risk got closer and entered radar range, Ennix saw that the same sector that Risk stood in was flashing red, despite no enemy being nearby -- same as when he had first found them. Turning his head to the side, he muttered to Deneb. “I thought you were working on a fix for that…?”

Deneb didn’t appear, but Ennix heard his Ghost’s voice clearly in his mind. “Still working on it, I’m afraid. Be patient with me, dear boy, I’ll get this sorted soon.”

Nodding, he turned back to face Risk. “I was just about to head back and exchange bounties. Want to join?”

“Sure.” Risk said tersely. It seemed like they hadn’t slept well either. “Anything fun happen while I was gone?”

Ennix started walking towards the outpost, and Risk followed. He said, “Not that I recall from last night, but maybe sometime I’ll tell you about Siran’s tripmine incident.”

From several feet away, she spoke up- “Hey, we are not bringing that up again! At least not unless I’m there to tell it.”

Ennix chuckled. “Alright, maybe I’ll just tell you an embarrassing story of my own. But right now let’s get to work.”

~~~

Risk stalked back towards the Outpost, barely aware of Siran and Ennix up ahead as they silently fumed. A whole night of tests with nothing to show for it but wasted glimmer and canisters of varyingly dubious contents. Only one of the trials had come out even remotely promising, but even then the composition was all wrong. Maybe they could try to find uses for the samples they had made, but that would involve more tests and-

Shaking their head, Risk approached the pair, noticed Ennix turning his head and muttering something about ‘a fix’, probably talking to his Ghost.

Turning to face them, he said, “I was just about to head back and exchange bounties. Want to join?”

“Sure.” They said, trying to keep their disappointment from last night out of their voice. Eager for a distraction, they asked, “Anything fun happen while I was gone?”

Ennix started walking towards the compound and said, “Not that I recall from last night, but maybe sometime I’ll tell you about Siran’s tripmine incident.”

From several feet away, the Hunter piped up- “Hey, we are not bringing that up again! At least not unless I’m there to tell it.”

Ennix chuckled. “Alright, maybe I’ll just tell you an embarrassing story of my own. But right now let’s get to work.”

“Right,” Risk said. “And uh, sorry if I’m prying, but I heard you say something about a fix? I’m pretty good with technology, so maybe it’s something I could help with…?”

“My radar’s been acting up a bit lately, but it’s nothing too major.” Ennix answered. “Deneb told me he’ll have it worked out soon.”

“Ah, got it. Well, the offer still stands if he has trouble figuring out the issue. Honestly I just want an excuse to work on a simple tech project.”

“Maybe Hayes will have something for you.” He suggested. “As you can imagine, resources are in short supply here, so repairs have high priority.”

“Nice, I’d like that.” Risk mused. “Maybe I could study some blueprints, if she'd let me. That way if anything breaks down I can save time on figuring out how it works and jump straight to fixing it.”

The two of them started to approach the Outpost’s gate. People were bustling around - Risk assumed because the day was starting and they were changing guard shifts - but Ennix made a worried sound.

“That’s a lot of people…” He said. Then, he started jogging towards the gate. “Your tech project might have to wait, let’s go see what’s up.”

Risk kept pace with the Titan as the two entered the compound. Mclaude had already come down from the watchtower, handing over their rifle to the guard taking over for the day shift.

“You folks made it just in time.” They said, “I was just about to send you news - That supply drop we thought went off course is still comin’ our way, should be dropping soon. Which wouldn’t be a problem if our motion sensors hadn’t been picking up increased activity in the forest.” Mclaude stuffed one hand into a coat pocket and pointed the other thumb back towards the Cabin. “Hayes is worried the Fallen are up to something, maybe they’ve been able to detect its approach. Report to her, she’ll fill you in.”

“We will, thank you Mclaude.” Ennix nodded, then turned to Risk and motioned for them to follow as he started jogging again towards the Cabin.

There, Hayes was deeply focused on her screens, hands flying over the touch-screen displays as she spoke to someone through her ear-piece.

“I know it’s unlikely, but ask anyway.” She said. A beat of silence. Then, “Yes, I know, but our survival is more important than our secrecy. The moment you’re informed that the drop has been lost I want you to inform her of our situation, that’s an order.” Risk couldn’t hear the words, but the voice on the other end raised in volume. Hayes cut them off. “We’ll continue this later, after I brief the Guardians.” With a huff, she tapped the earpiece and turned to Risk and Ennix.

Ennix bowed his head. “Mclaude told us the basics.” He said. “I thought that shipment had gone off-course, what changed?”

Hayes slid off of her stool and started stretching out her arms. “We knew chances were slim that we’d be able to course correct,” She explained. “But our extra-orbital sensors just confirmed that it’s back on track. Of course, a delayed or missing shipment is nothing new - my concern is that it’s landing point now falls well within the Fallen territory in the forest. Given the increased movement we’ve been seeing since last night, I’m worried they’re going to try and take the supplies for themselves. If they get cocky with a sudden boost in provisions, that might lead to an attack on the Outpost.”

Risk hesitantly raised a hand. “Uh, ma’am? I know a lot about the Fallen. Perhaps there’s some way I could help defuse the situation, if it comes to it. At the very least I could scout out the forest, see what intel I could bring back.”

Hayes let her arms drop back down to her sides as she raised her eyebrows. “A Fallen expert. Well then, by all means, do what you gotta do to make sure they don’t get that shipment. That is the bottom line.” She turned to look pointedly at Ennix. “Is that clear?”

Ennix seemed to falter a bit under her stare. “Yes ma’am.” He said.

She held her gaze for a moment longer. “Good.” She turned back to her consoles. “Keep beating back the Hive, but for the next 35 hours until the supply drop comes, I want at least one of you patrolling the forest at any given time. Take your bounties and get to it.”

Leaving the Cabin, Ennix seemed a lot less enthusiastic. He relayed the briefing to Siran, but even as he spoke, the lights in his mouth seemed diminished.

“Uh, hey Ennix?” Risk asked.

“Yeah?”

“You’ve been around a lot longer, what’s your advice on dealing with the Fallen here?”

He sighed in thought. It was hard enough as it was for Risk not to stare at the intricate mechanics that made up Ennix’s face, but the gentle whirring of machinery followed by the surprisingly organic sound of a deep breath distracted them for a moment.

“When I first got here, I figured the best approach would be to avoid giving them a reason to attack the Outpost.” He explained. “Seeing a Guardian usually gets them worked up enough as it is, but so far I’ve been able to deter them instead of just outright killing them all - felt like a good change of pace, y’know? That's the plan I stick to.”

“Does…” They hesitated to ask. “Does Hayes not like that plan?”

“No, not really.” He remarked, scratching at his neck. “She worries it’ll just embolden them, show them that there are no consequences if they push their luck. And she worries for good reason, keeping the place safe and running is her whole job. I _will_ defend the Outpost, whatever it takes. But I’d rather save lethal measures for when it’s necessary.”

“And for the Hive?” Risk asked.

“And for the Hive.”

Heading out into the forest, Risk pulled out Slag and took a better look at the map. “For now we just need to scope out the landing site.” They said. “Looks like the last reports put it somewhere within a one-mile radius, but as it gets closer they should be able to narrow it down.” With a casual wave of a hand, Slag disappeared again and Risk started walking more to the South.

Travel through the dry woods went by much faster than through the Craigs. Instead of having to clamber over rocks and deal with Hive, there was just walking between the trees and finding smoother paths through the sparse undergrowth. As they kept walking though, the sounds of nearby Fallen started getting louder.

Ennix drew to a halt, silently holding up a hand for Risk to stop. Falling to one knee, he said in a whisper, “Would you be comfortable taking point, and going to the landing site on your own? I’d volunteer, but-” He gestured to himself and his armor, the spectacularly clashing colors sticking out against the muted greens and browns of the forest.

“Yeah, this might be more of a stealth mission.” Risk agreed, settling into a comfortable crouch beside him. “I should be fine. Just hang back and keep me posted on what you see. And if you lose visual of me, don’t worry. I’m uh, _really_ good at blending in.”

Ennix nodded. “Understood. And on the off-chance you do get spotted before making the scan, don’t be afraid to fall back.”

“Got it.” Risk said, shifting around so that their back was towards the nearest group of Fallen. Pulling Slag out again, they stared intently at the map for several minutes before dismissing her again. “Alright, I’ll start heading out. Keep an eye on my back, but mostly just focus on not getting caught.”

With that, Risk put their hood up and started towards the Fallen encampment. Staying low to the ground, they silently darted from tree to tree. 

After about 30 more feet, the first Fallen came into view. Risk could make out the familiar chitters and clicks, but the sounds were still too distant and indistinct to make out words. Pressing their back against a tree, they barely leaned their head out far enough to peek around. After watching the patrolling Dregs for a few minutes, they timed their movements and made it to the next spot of cover undetected.

This pattern of stop-and-go progress continued as Risk slowly made their way towards the survey point. After making their way around the first crew, they were now properly surrounded. On the upside, they could also hear the surrounding Fallen much more clearly. It was mostly just idle noises - the human equivalent to coughs and grunts and occasional throat clearing - but Risk did catch a few scattered conversations. Trying to stay focused on stealth, they made a mental nudge to Slag to record it all so they could try to translate it later.

About twenty minutes in, Risk heard a commotion behind them, quickly followed by Ennix shouting out in surprise. Making sure they were properly hidden first, Risk slowly turned around to see the colorfully-clad Titan sprinting away, closely followed by shouting Dregs and Vandals. It was almost amusing, watching him wave his arms around - almost as if he were trying to swat away the shock-bolts.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Risk managed to cover ten more feet before having to come to a stop again. Taking a moment to scope out their next hiding spot, Slag relayed a message from Ennix.

“Status report - Position compromised. Forced to withdraw. I’ve lost visual on you. Notify me if you are compromised, I will move back in and assist with ex-filtration.”

Risk didn’t respond, didn’t want to take the chance of being heard. They knew Ennix was bound to be discovered sooner or later, but they couldn’t help but feel dread at the thought that now they were more or less on their own. The only upside was that they were very close to the target location.

Squaring their shoulders, they turned towards their final destination - where they were immediately faced with a bigger problem. A cloaked Marauder was standing right on top of the survey point, brandishing two shock-blades.

Risk knew that they had to come up with something quickly - either the Marauder in front of them would see them or the Vandals behind them would. Steeling their nerves, they waited until the Marauder was facing away from them before summoning a fiery grenade and dropping it at their own feet.

They dove towards a nearby boulder. The grenade went off. A yelp of surprise came from the Marauder. Risk pressed their back into the stone, struggling to keep their breathing under control as the Marauder drew closer to investigate. Risk could clearly see the folds in the deep purple fabric of their cape as they stopped before the tree. If they turned around right then, they would see Risk in plain view.

Whirling around the boulder, Risk sprinted to the survey point and whipped their hand out, hunching their body over Slag as she appeared.

_Go, go go go go gogogogogo_ \- Risk silently pleaded. Slag wasted no time, sending pulses of holographic light out that trailed grid lines - thankfully things only Risk and other Guardians could see. Regardless, it wasn’t long before Risk heard the Marauder cry out, and they felt the first bullets strike their back.

Wincing, Risk stayed put as more Fallen gathered. The Marauder started issuing commands, but Risk was panicking too much to pay attention. At that moment, they reached inwards toward their Light and desperately thought of something - anything, that would help.

_I just need to hold out until Slag is finished._ They thought. Squeezing their eyes shut, their mind grabbed hold of something - a spark that had previously been out of reach. _I just need to stay alive long enough to complete the mission. I need to protect her._

They could feel the Light pool into their hands, could feel the burn itching to be released. Risk opened their eyes and let out a startled sound as a glowing circle sprung to life around them. The hail of bullets suddenly stung a little less, and Risk’s injuries started healing faster.

Risk kept shielding Slag with their body until finally the Ghost shouted- "I've got it, I'm done!"

Risk immediately dismissed her but stayed inside the healing rift a moment longer. “Send the survey data back to the Cabin-”

“Already on it, just go!”

Risk took off, just as a spear-wielding Wretch got close enough to lunge at them. Once outside the rift, the bullets once again hit them with full force. Dodging and weaving between the trees, Risk tore past the rest of the Fallen crews. Most of the startled Dregs could only shout and fire off a few shots before they were already out of range.

It wasn't long before Ennix came into view, barreling towards them. As Risk got closer he threw an arm out, and a glowing purple shield formed. Running alongside Risk, he blocked the rest of the incoming fire and protected them until both guardians were well out of range.

Ennix stumbled to a stop as his shield dissipated. Risk staggered next to him, almost falling over. “Easy, are you okay?” He asked.

Risk didn’t respond right away. Ennix had kept things from getting dire, but their mind was still hazy with the amount of pain they were in.

Sucking in a breath, they straightened. “Yup. Got the area scanned. Sent the data to Hayes.” Their breathing steadied as Slag healed their injuries. “This supply drop is going to be uh, pretty interesting, to say the least.”

Ennix nodded silently. “Not to mention we’re supposed to keep patrolling the area, but after catching both of us well within their ranks, I don’t think they’ll take that well.”

Risk huffed. Turning away from Ennix, they hugged their arms to their chest and started walking back into the forest, giving the Fallen a wide berth. “We should've tried talking to them first. I’ll go back into the forest later, try and explain the situation to them.”

“You don’t have to, you know how dangerous it is now.” Ennix said, jogging to catch up to Risk.

Risk quickly dropped their arms back to their sides as the Titan pulled up beside them. “I’m a Guardian, remember? Putting myself in dangerous situations is...kinda what I’m supposed to do.”

“You at least don’t have to go alone.” He insisted. "I understand the Fallen have had it hard, but they might try to destroy Slag if they get the chance. Let me or Siran go with you."

Risk shook their head. “Seeing one Guardian would be enough to put them on edge. Even if it was just me, I’d be lucky to get a word in as I might become very busy getting shot at.”

“I suppose that’s true.” He answered begrudgingly. "Still...just think about it."

As the two of them started down a lightly worn path, Siran’s voice suddenly came in over the comms.

“Guys? I’m picking up a metered increase in Hive activity in this one spot. If they’re about to try something I’m gonna need both your guys’ help to shut it down.”

Ennix stopped in his tracks, turning back towards the Craigs. “But Hayes said-”

“I _know_ what she said,” Siran cut him off. “And one of you can go back to the forest once this is over. But for now get your butts over here.”

Ennix nodded and held out an arm for Risk to stop. He held out another hand to bring out Deneb, and a moment later his Sparrow appeared.

“Get on.” Ennix said, as he sat in the only available seat.

“Uh, how?”

“Either grab around my waist or find a handhold. This is the fastest way to travel and I want to get there in time, but I don’t want you to be left behind.”

“Fair enough.” Risk muttered, walking up to the sleek craft. Clambering up onto the front, they sat down and leaned back until they could grab onto the sides.

Before they could even ask if they were blocking his view, Ennix hit the throttle and the both of them were off. Risk could barely suppress a yelp as their hood was blown back and they nearly lost their grip. By some miracle of the Light, they were able to hold on the whole way, even as Ennix flew at full speed, tearing through the Craigs and weaving through boulders and rock formations. They pulled up to Siran just as a swarm of Hive appeared around her.

“Welcome to the party.” She said dryly. As she sidestepped a Knight, a ring of glowing runes lit up at her feet. “We’ve got a Witches’ Ritual on our hands. You two hold that other ring.” Siran reloaded her hand canon as she spoke, taking out the Knight near her. A group of Thrall came up from behind and rushed towards her. Whirling around, she fired a shot that caught the leading Thrall directly in the head. As it died, a sudden burst of flames exploded out from it, taking most of the surrounding Thrall with it.

With barely any time to regain their bearings, Risk stumbled off of the Sparrow, trying to find the outline of a second ring in the ground as Ennix started picking off most of the smaller Hive. Once the green glow sprung up from beneath them, Risk started focusing fire on one of the Witches flanking their fireteam. Between the two Witches was a dark, gaping hole in the rock face.

The Witches were clearly not your average floating Hive - Risk had worn them down far past the point any normal Wizard would’ve died. They kept shooting out bolts of energy that left Risk with that same sick-burning sensation as the Ogre’s eye beam. Ennix motioned for them to get behind him. As he erected a barricade and took the brunt of the Witches’ attacks, Risk and Siran were able to finish them off.

Once the two Hive mages were dead, only a few more moments passed before the glowing runes on the ground faded away.

“The crystals, we need to shoot at them.” Ennix said, pointing above and to one side of the portal.

The crystals were slightly obscured by the surrounding rock, but Risk noticed hazy force-fields disappear around the two rough-hewn shapes. They took aim and started firing, noting the cracks that started to grow and spread from the repeated impacts.

“What does destroying the crystals do?” Risk asked as they fired.

“Not sure.” Ennix said. “But usually a portal appears, and then a Hive called an Abyssal Champion steps out of it.”

“Sounds lovely, I can’t wait to meet them.” Risk deadpanned, as the crystal they had been shooting at shattered. Siran’s crystal soon followed. There was a brief pause before a dark and gaping portal ignited into the rock face with a threatening hum. More Hive appeared from around them.

Then, striding out of the swirling darkness was a figure far taller than any Knight, wielding a wicked looking ax. The Abyssal Champion stopped in front of the portal for a moment, as if to take in its surroundings. Risk interrupted whatever thoughts it may have had by pitching a grenade straight to its head.

Siran once again summoned her spectral bow and fired it at the Abyssal Champion - once to tether it and again and again to weaken it further. Ennix summoned the shield and charged, bashing it repeatedly against its stone-like armor. Watching both veteran Guardians at the peak of their power was certainly a spectacle, but things were happening so fast that Risk barely had any time to gawk.

The Champion let out a roar and brought its ax down as Ennix’s power faded. He wasn’t able to dodge in time. After being weakened by the Witches, the blow sent him staggering back. Charging forward, Risk dropped and slid across the ground, summoning a healing rift around Ennix before striking at the towering Hive warrior. Flames shot out of Risk’s hand, but it hardly seemed to faze the Champion.

Before it could bring its ax back around to strike at Risk, Ennix grabbed Risk’s hood and flung them away. They skidded across the ground, but got back to their feet just in time to see Siran throw a smoke bomb. After stunning the Abyssal Champion and letting Ennix get away, she twirled her black-and-white hand cannon before firing a final shot at its head. With a final burst of fire, the Champion fell, it’s interior burning away and only leaving the empty husk of its chitin behind to smolder on the ground. The portal closed, all the surrounding Hive were dead, and they could all take a moment to breathe.

As Risk reloaded their hand cannon, they looked back up to see Ennix and Siran exchanging worried expressions. “Is something wrong?” They asked. “Things got a little dicey, but I thought that went pretty well.”

Siran looked at Risk and paused a moment before saying, “This has never happened before. Not here.”

“Oh.” Risk said, not liking the implications of that statement.

Ennix brushed some loose stone dust off of his gauntlets. “Hayes is not gonna like this.” He remarked.

Siran turned back to the direction of the Outpost. She then turned back to Risk and gave them a pointed look.

“My trick with the Void bow,” She said, “And Ennix’s ground-pound, can you do anything like that?”

Risk blinked, shaking their head. “I’ve got my grenades, and sometimes when I strike something, flames come out. I can also lay down healing rifts, apparently, but that’s a newer development. I can tell I have more Light than that, but so far that’s all I’ve been able to do.”

Siran nodded. Then turning to Ennix, said, “You take watch out here. Risk and I will keep tabs on Fallen movement. Send for us if something like this happens again.” Turning back to Risk, she continued. “During the slower parts of tonight, I’m gonna teach you how to be a Warlock. If the Hive here are stirring, you’ve got to get more powerful to face whatever’s coming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for getting this chapter out so late, Shadowkeep really Freaked my Bean. I think I'll do away with the upload schedule, but the next chapter will come much sooner than this one did -- that much I can promise.


	5. The Calm Before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this installment and in future chapters, a character speaking Eliksni has fully italicized dialogue.

Risk and Siran sat on top of a cluster of boulders deep within the forest. Siran was sprawled out on her stomach, peering through an unloaded sniper rifle. Crouching next to her, Risk kept a general look out as the Hunter kept tabs on the Fallen crews. As the two kept watch, they idly chatted.

“I may be new to this whole Guardian thing,” Risk said, “But I’m not _that_ gullible.”

“I’m dead serious, you could eat your grenade.” Siran replied, staring through the scope. “Not like, put-it-in-your-mouth eat it, but-”

“What other kinds of eating are there?” Risk asked.

“Well, sometimes a Warlock holds onto a grenade for longer than usual and then something weird happens. In the case of Void abilities, the grenade just kind of disappears. Balthazar - a member of Ennix’s old fireteam - says it heals him up in a pinch, leaves a metallic taste in his mouth.”

“Huh…” Risk glanced over their shoulder to look behind them. No movement save for branches waving in the wind. Still dubious, they asked, “Could I do that with other types of grenades?”

“Other Void grenades seem to get stronger the longer you hold on to them. As far as I know, there’s only one other subtype with that kind of trick. My datemate, Zircon-4, they’ll run solar sometimes if we need a more defensive strategy. If they hang onto their grenade, they can slap it on the ground and if you walk over it, it’ll grant you an over-shield. More often than not though, they’ll just throw it. They like blowing things up.”

Risk squinted happily at the fondness in Siran’s voice. “Any chance they could come here for a visit? Maybe they could teach me too, I know this isn’t exactly in your wheelhouse.”

Siran chuckled as she shifted the rifle slightly. “True, very true. But sadly, Hayes doesn’t want this place getting too crowded. She’s worried more guardians will attract more unwanted attention, which makes sense.”

Pausing for a moment before looking back to Siran, Risk asked, “All this stuff happening now isn’t because of me, is it?”

“Nah, that’s not how it works. Sure, guardians have a knack for drawing attention, but plenty of bad things have also happened when guardians weren’t there to stop it. I don’t know why you came to Hyperion Outpost, of all places, and I won’t pry, but I think you’re supposed to be here.”

Risk blinked at that comment, turned their head back to the forest to keep a lookout but couldn’t think of a response. They stayed silent.

Finally, Siran spoke again. “I was able to send some messages to Zircon. According to them, you’re following the Attunement of Sky right now. For the sake of keeping our cover, we won’t go over anything _too_ flashy, but how about you practice dodging in midair?”

“What, right now?”

“Sure, why not? At the very least, you’ll get a better vantage point from up there.”

“Alright…” Risk rose to their full height, looking up for a moment before looking back down at their two hands. “Dodge in midair, right…” They muttered to themself. Then, stooping down for a moment, Risk jumped straight up. For a moment, they focused on the feeling of wind rushing past them as they floated. Reaching for their Light, they stretched out to their left and envisioned themself pushing off of the air like it was solid ground.

Nothing happened.

Frowning, they landed on the ground and tried again. This time, they practically threw themself through the air.

“Woah-!” With a burst of flames trailing their body, Risk lunged several feet to the side. Just as quickly as the flames came, they dissipated, and Risk started falling back down, feeling somewhat giddy. They started gliding again and drifted back over towards Siran.

“That’s so cool!”

“Did you do it?” Siran asked, still staring through her rifle’s scope.

“Wha- you weren’t even looking!?”

“Keep your voice down!” Siran said with a smile. “Actually, yeah, you know what-?” She pushed herself up with one arm and slung the rifle onto her back, unholstering her black-and-white hand cannon. “I’m not getting much useful information out of these guys from this distance. Let’s move somewhere a little more out of the way and keep practicing.”

Once a better spot was found, Risk quickly discovered that they couldn’t constantly dash through the air. They tried not to be too disappointed. After another few minutes of drifting and gliding and flitting about, Siran waved them down and motioned for Risk to stand next to her.

“The Dawnblade class seems to suit you well.” Siran said. “Now that you’ve actually gotten a taste for the air, it’s hard to land again, huh?”

“It...really is, actually.” Risk said. Before, they had been so constantly focused on repairing the ship or completing their hard light projector. There hadn’t been many opportunities to just focus on their Light and revel in their powers.

Siran smiled. “Just wait until you get a chance to let loose. As a Dawnblade, you should be able to weave your Light into a sword and send arcs of fire towards your enemies - while flying, of course. You also get wings of fire for some good old-fashioned Warlock flair.”

Risk looked back down at their hands in amazement. They never realized just how much they could be capable of, and this was just one subtype of the Light. What else could they do if they learned Void Light? Or Arc? Were there other ways to wield one’s Light that hadn’t been discovered yet?

As if reading their thoughts, Siran said, “At the end of the day, learning and growing in your abilities is a simple matter of using them, so experiment. I’ve heard over the years that even a Guardian’s intent has power. Of course, there are still limitations. Certain abilities seem to be chained together. Take, for example, the Solar abilities Zircon sometimes uses. If they wanted something more offensive and switched to the more typical Dawnblade attack, then they’d lose the ability to throw down an overshield.”

“Right.” Risk said. Then, after a pause, “Could I…? Sorry, this is gonna be a stupid question - could I summon two blades? Or would that fall under the aforementioned limitations?”

Siran laughed. “I would _love_ if you could pull that off. Like I said, sometimes you just need to experiment. You’re a Warlock who uses knives, clearly anything’s possible.”

Risk huffed a quiet laugh at that. _Right, it’s the fact that I use knives that makes me remarkable. Oh, if only you knew...great, now I’ve made myself sad._

Siran, seeming to sense the sudden shift in mood. She suddenly brought out her holographic screen. “Let me double check if I’m missing anything...Oh! Zircon says here that you’ll probably find it easy to use weapons and throw grenades while you’re midair. That’s something unique to the Attunement of Sky, apparently. For other Warlock abilities, you’ll stop gliding as soon as you do something that takes up too much of your focus.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Risk said, less enthusiastically than before. “Do uh...do you get any abilities like that?”

“No, but then again, I get abilities that Warlocks don’t have, so it balances out, I think. Meditation also helps when it comes to your powers. Even for Titans and Hunters, if we want to change subtypes we’ve got to stop and focus for a minute on what kind of Light we want to use. I’ve found a spot out in the Craigs where I like to watch the sun set and just...think, be aware of my Light.”

“Meditation, right, that sounds like a good idea.” Risk found themself walking back towards the cluster of boulders where the two of them had been keeping watch. “So meditate and just...test things out?”

“Yup, that’s your homework.” Siran said, walking up beside Risk. “And it helps if you just use your abilities as often as you can, usually that helps folks learn faster. Don’t worry about saving a grenade for later if you see a chance to use it in that moment, just full steam ahead. If you’re supercharged on Light and ready to use Dawnblade, that’s a slightly different matter, but as you go along you’ll get better at recognizing the right time to use it.”

“Maybe we could go through that lost sector again?” Risk suggested, lowering their voice as they got closer to the Fallen outposts. “If they’ve put another big ogre in there, that seems like a good target to practice on.”

“Oh, yeah! Dawnblade is pretty good for crowd-control too, so if you find yourself surrounded, that would be another good time to use it. I really should check on that Lost Sector again, though. I’ll let you know when I do.”

“Please do.” Risk said. “Anything else I should know about being a Dawnblade?”

“Nope, I think that just about- Oh, well, there was one other thing…” Siran said.

“What is it?” Risk asked, noting the unhappy tone in her voice.

Siran rubbed the back of her neck through her hood. “I’d hate to end this on a sour note, but I’d rather give you a heads-up than have you caught off-guard. Zircon brought up how nightmares and insomnia are pretty common for Warlocks. I’ve never asked for specifics, but it seems that whether it’s foreboding premonitions fed by space-magic or simply because you researched something unpleasant, eventually something will keep you awake at night.”

“Oh.” Risk said, trying to stay nonchalant and doing a rather poor job of it. “Well, I guess that tracks for being an undead space wizard.”

“I suppose it does. But it’s like I said, I don’t ask questions, it’s why people like me-” Siran said, “So if you ever want to talk about it, I’d be happy to lend an ear. Hunters don’t sleep well either so I can empathize. If you don’t want to talk about it, I’m usually awake and on patrol if you just want to get your mind off of things.”

“That’s...very kind of you, Siran.” Risk looked down, resisting the urge to pick at their gloves. They tried not to think about how quickly Siran and Ennix were starting to feel like parental figures, or older siblings. Tried not to think about how that would change if they knew the truth. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Siran nodded. “Good, now enough depressing stuff! Let’s get back to patrolling.”

~~~

The two guardians agreed to split up in order to cover more ground. During that time, Risk listened to the chatter that Slag had recorded while they had been preoccupied with getting to the survey point. It all turned out to be idle chit-chat. At some point Hayes called in with the results of the survey scan and signed off for the night. The survey scan helped her and the Outpost staff plan for the supply drop, but otherwise there was nothing noteworthy to report. The hours passed as the stars traced their paths in the sky, and as the night stretched on, Risk eventually found themself hiding behind a tree, about ten feet away from a pair of patrolling Dregs.

_It’s like I told Ennix,_ they thought. _Just talk to them. Introduce myself, explain the situation, the worst they could do is chase me off. I have to at least try._

They stayed frozen behind the tree. After another few moments, they looked down at the device they wore as a Warlock bond. _Maybe if I turned that off? Then I wouldn’t have to worry so much about introductions, but if Siran is close by and sees that- no, I can’t. I should just step out and introduce myself, easy, just do it._

Five minutes later, Risk still hadn’t moved.

Yanking their hood down over their face, Risk sunk into a crouch and struggled to contain the sound of frustration bubbling up in their throat. Once they had regained some of their composure, they stalked away from the Fallen, almost wishing they were facing off with that huge Ogre again instead. Finding a large and robust looking tree, they took out one of their daggers and peeled away a section of bark. With their improvised paper, they reached into one of the pockets of their overcoat and pulled out a bottle of ink, along with a small paint brush.

_“Coward.”_ They muttered to themself as they drew out a crude map. After jotting down a few familiar symbols beneath it, they put the stopper in the bottle and stowed away the writing implements.

Returning to their same hiding place as before, Risk waited until the two Dregs were both turned away before tossing the painted tree bark in their direction and dashing off to the next nearest hiding place.

There were sounds of surprise as they noticed the unexpected offering.

_“What is this?”_ One of the Dregs asked. Risk had no trouble understanding the rough language. _“Where did this even come from?”_

_“Don’t get too close!”_ The other said. _“It could be some kind of Guardian trap.”_

Risk didn’t dare peek around the tree they hid behind, but after a few moments of scuffling sounds, the second Dreg spoke up again.

_“Some kind of map…? Wait, Captain Davriks needs to see this.”_

_“Oh that’s nice handwriting.”_ The other said, before making a sudden sound of pain. If Risk had to venture a guess, it sounded like the second Dreg had smacked him.

_“Bigger picture here, Anok!”_ He said. Then, raising his voice, _“Siraks! Come here, we found something.”_

A third pair of footsteps sounded before a different voice spoke. _“Where did this come from?”_ Asked Siraks.

_“I don't know, we just...turned around, and there it was!”_ Anok explained.

There was a moment of silence. Then, Risk suddenly realized that a pair of footsteps was approaching, getting startlingly close. Looking around in a panic, they bolted towards the rock formation that they and Siran had used as a vantage point earlier.

Shrieks of surprise and the sound of shock pistols went off behind them. Diving behind some boulders, Risk struggled to stay quiet as they caught their breath, waiting for the sound of more footsteps. When none came, they breathed a sigh of relief. Getting to their feet, Risk started walking more to the West, flanking the crew and being especially careful to stay out of sight. 

It didn’t take long before they found another vantage point. Risk climbed up one of the trees and perched on a branch. As they settled into a crouch, Risk rested their elbows on their knees and put their head in one hand. As their hand passed through the hard light projection, it blurred and glitched for a moment before stabilizing. Risk figured it probably looked like their hand had disappeared into their face, but they didn’t care.

“You’re not a coward.” Slag said very gently, staying hidden in Risk’s pack.

“You have evidence to support that claim?” They asked glumly. “I didn’t go to the Tower, instead I sought out the place with the least Guardian activity. I couldn’t even talk to some Dregs.”

“Perhaps,” She said slowly. “But, I think the term ‘coward’ implies that someone’s so scared to act, it has a negative impact on things. You DID drop off a warning, you still conveyed that information to them. You still left that junkyard with the intent to do your duty as a Guardian. It sucks that you’re scared, but you have good reason for it. I think you’ve been very brave.”

“Not brave enough to show my face.” Risk muttered, turning their head in a half-hearted attempt to scan their surroundings.

Slag didn’t respond right away, but Risk could sense her frustration as she struggled to come up with a response. Finally, she stuttered, “You- GAH, shut up! There’s more than one way to be brave!”

Risk sighed. Looking out into the forest, they could see figures start to move between the trees. It would seem that their message was starting to make its rounds through the Fallen crews. Overhead through the leaves, starlight shone down, the scattered illumination reflecting off of moving armor and weapons and the makeshift structures the Fallen had constructed.

They let their hand drop back into their lap. “Guess I can’t argue with that.”

With the conversation at an end, the two fell silent. With the warning delivered to the Fallen and the supply drop on its way, there was nothing left but to watch, and wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to thank you guys for reading! I really appreciate it, and your engagement gave me the motivation I needed to finish this chapter. The next installment is where things are gonna start getting exciting, so buckle up! <3


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